European stocks are mostly flat ahead of the European Central Bank's announcement today at 12.45 p.m. GMT, followed by a press conference at 1:30 p.m. Here's the scorecard:
*France's CAC 40*: +0.06%
*Germany's DAX *is the best performer, +0.33%
*UK's FTSE 100*: -0.01%
*Spain's IBEX*: +0.12%
*Italy's FTSE MIB*: +0.16%
Asian markets rallied before close. *Japan's Nikkei* closed up 0.94%, *Hong Kong's Hang Seng* closed up 1.72%, and the surging *Shanghai Composite Index* closed up 4.31%.
US futures are flat: *The S&P 500 *is down by 0.25 points, and *the Dow *is up 5 points. *
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Today, the ECB meeting in Frankfurt is the biggest economic event. Analysts are expecting a lot of dovish noises, and hints at more easing, but less concrete action.
At 1:30 p.m. GMT, we've also got initial jobless numbers from the US, for the week ending on Nov. 29. Analysts are expecting fewer than 300,000 initial claims for unemployment benefits.
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